


Second Year Deathmatch

by EdamamiTomoe



Series: SIBA (School Idol Battle Arena) [1]
Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Arena Combat, Fights, Nobody Actually Dies, just think of it like a moba, like they do die but not like DIE die
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-05-26
Packaged: 2018-11-05 03:45:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11005296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EdamamiTomoe/pseuds/EdamamiTomoe
Summary: Arena type: ForestTime limit: UnlimitedRound type: DeathmatchArmour type: School UniformCombatants: Umi Sonoda (Archer), Kotori Minami (Assassin), Honoka Kousaka (Swordswoman)





	Second Year Deathmatch

With the sound of the cannon, the match has begun. Wasting no time at all, Umi immediately set about making her way to the treetops, jumping and climbing up the branches with exceptional agility and speed. Only a minute in, and she had already made it to quite the spectacular heights, and quickly began roving about high up, bows and arrows tightly in hand, eyes focused and keen. There’s no saying if this was simply her innate unique skill, or something achieved through strenuous training, but the archer has done quite well to move so quickly amongst the leaves making minimum noise, even despite being dressed in her school uniform.

Honoka wasn’t any less ahead of the game though, and began moving swiftly towards the stone beacon the moment the cannon sounded. She seemed to be a lot less concerned with stealth and a lot more with being the first to receive the blessings of the stone beacon, and made no efforts to cover her tracks or run quickly as she traversed through the rugged forest path. That didn’t mean that she wasn’t being careful though; if the audience didn’t know from previous matches, the swordswoman, despite being a very oblivious person in general, actually had quite an impressive sense of hearing and smell, and could easily notice if someone is nearby and ready to strike. Umi should count her blessings while she still could!

Such exceptional senses could do nothing, though, in the face of teleportation. Kotori, the infamous yandere feared for her ability to be everywhere at once and find openings where others may not be able to, had quickly set her sights on taking down the swordswoman as soon as the match had started, and appeared to have made her way to her target already despite starting from the other side of the forest. As Honoka continued dashing towards the stone beacon, she would suddenly feel a cold breath chilling the back of her neck accompanied by a sweet, deadly soft voice in her ear, whispering, “Behind you.”

Though she already had her hand tightly on the handle of her sword, even before she could turn around, Honoka would quickly feel a sharp pain ripping through her back as the serrated edge of Kotori’s jang-mi kal knife tore through her flesh. The momentum she had built up from sprinting would quickly be used against her, as the assassin put her weight into her body quickly after the slash to push her down. Even without being able to turn around, Honoka knew in that moment that Kotori was going for a quick kill, and wasn’t about to have any of it.

The moment she hit the ground, the swordswoman immediately brought her sword to her chest and rolled to the side onto her back, just a split second before the assassin’s blade came down hard, plunging into the ground where her neck should have been. Not letting Kotori have the upper hand again, Honoka hopped back onto her feet, still wincing at the pain of feeling her open wound touching the soil through her torn shirt and jacket, and brought her blade up just in time to block another slash from the assassin. She was lucky that the knife came down at just the wrong enough angle that it wouldn’t immediately chop her sword in half, but she wasn’t about to get anywhere with a knife lodged in her blade like this, digging into it. Keeping her sword steady with her stance, Honoka stared into Kotori’s eyes with a determined look on her face, and, in one swift motion, unsheathed her short sword with her right hand from its scabbard and struck forth, driving it through her adversary’s side, just beneath the ribcage.

Kotori yelped out in pain as the short sword went through her, and quickly lost her grip on her knife and fell backwards, leaving her only weapon lodged in Honoka’s blade. Not letting herself hit the ground though, she quickly vanished and reappeared a feet behind where she would have landed, her feet planted firmly in the ground. Looking at the stupid look Honoka had on her face as she shook the blood off her short sword and the knife off her longer sword, the latter of which came off with a small chunk of metal, Kotori snarled and glared angrily at her. Swiftly teleporting to catch her knife before it could hit the ground and then away again, the assassin seemed to have decided that she had lost the element of surprise, and quickly teleported away.

The assassin wouldn’t be able to catch a break just yet though, not under the careful eye of the archer. Before she knew it, Kotori would suddenly find herself facing a torrent of arrows raining down from the treetop. Quickly blinking through in between the arrows to avoid being shot by any one of them, she quickly scanned above to see just where the hidden sniper was, though to no avail, not when the arrow storm wouldn’t stop, and continued to come seemingly from every angle. Fortunately enough for her, and unfortunately enough for Umi, Kotori would manage to finally spot her assailant amongst the branches and make it through with just a few scrapes on her arms and legs.

Umi, unlike Honoka, was well-prepared to face Kotori, much to her adversary’s discontent. The very moment she saw the assassin vanish from her sights, she immediately leaped forward and twisted her body around, just enough to fire another three arrows at the target that had suddenly appeared behind her. Though Kotori managed to duck just in time for the arrows to sail over her head, she would not be able to dodge the second barrage Umi fired at her. Unfortunately for the archer, simply an arrow to the thigh wasn’t enough to stop the assassin from leaping at her again and striking at her, cutting into her stomach as she tried to jump backwards again, causing her to fall backwards and out of the tree.

The archer would land hard on her back after a 10-meter fall with a large gash on her stomach, her vision going dark the moment of impact. For just a moment, she thought it would be all over when she heard the sound of Kotori’s teleportation, that she would feel the blade to her neck and her life being over just like that. But then, she heard Honoka’s battlecry, followed quickly by Kotori’s gasp, and took the opportunity to quickly get back onto her feet and dash into the woods once again, despite not being able to see where she was going for a few minutes.

Honoka really wasn’t trying to save Umi at all, since this was a one-idol-standing deathmatch; she was rather trying to ward Kotori off so she could take the kill instead, but it seemed like she underestimated Umi’s ability to escape. So now, instead she had to turn her attention back to the assassin, who looked incredibly angry at her for having let her prey away, but unlike last time, the swordswoman was so much more prepared. She had managed to reach the stone beacon and received its blessing while Kotori and Umi were busy fighting each other, and not only had her injuries healed, but was now bursting with destructive energies. This was the first time she had actually managed to get the stone beacon’s blessing, so she was eager to test out its powers.

Shouting loudly again, Honoka charged at Kotori and swung her sword at her, her target unsurprisingly blinking backwards away from her, but this time not without injuries. Because of the blessing of the sword beacon, the swordswoman’s blade had released a wave of raw power when swung, and it managed to soar quickly enough to cut into the assassin before she could teleport away again, cutting apart her shirt and jacket and leaving her top in tatters. This was just a tad disappointing for Honoka though, the fact that the wave released from her blade wasn’t actually strong enough to make it past Kotori’s clothes and cut her apart, but now that her opponent’s defensive wear had been effectively destroyed, she would have no trouble slaughtering her.

Well, at least that’s what the swordswoman would like to believe, but the assassin was a quick learner. Having beheld, and felt, the power of the stone beacon, Kotori quickly picked up that she should start teleporting away at an angle, maybe sometimes at an elevation as well, rather than simply away if she wanted to dodge Honoka’s extended attack range. And that was exactly what she began doing, avoiding the swordswoman’s reckless and overconfident attacks with ease. It was quite clear that Honoka had given up on being careful or defensive at all, so Kotori decided to take one of the many wide openings Honoka left her and teleport behind her, cutting into her back once again. But this time, rather than falling down in pain, the swordswoman remained standing firm, and her wound slowly began closing up right in front of the assassin’s eyes, much to her horror.

Taking advantage of Kotori’s moment of weakness at having realized the regenerative nature of the stone beacon’s power, Honoka quickly whipped around, elbowing her hard in the face. Drawing out her short sword as the assassin tried to regain her balance once again, the swordswoman plunged her blade into her stomach, and back away for just a bit, staring at her opponent’s desperate face with bloodlust in her eyes. Then, not letting Kotori recover or draw the shorter blade from her stomach, Honoka struck her down with a single slash from her sword, felling her before her feet.

The swordswoman would take a moment to catch her breath before bending down to pull her short sword from Kotori’s stomach. Completely unaware that the blessing had already worn off by then, and deceived by her own adrenaline rush, Honoka quickly set off into the forest, not even bothering to shake the blood off her two swords, looking to take down the last player in the game.

Umi had managed to recover from terrible fall after a bit of rest, hidden away safely amongst the branches once again, although she had yet to find any herbs in the woods that could help with the terrible gash on her stomach. Instead, she simply ripped the left sleeve off of her jacket and tied it around her waist to apply pressure, hoping it might help slow down the blood loss. Of course, she knew that it wouldn’t really work, and that her time left to kill both Honoka and Kotori was now pretty limited, so she set out once again, moving along the treetops.

Though Honoka had a strong sense of hearing, she would not be able detect Umi this time, not with how stealthily she was moving along above her. The only trace of Umi she would be able to find would be the sudden arrow rain she’d run into, and by then she was quickly forced into the defensive, expending her energy blocking the storm of arrows flying at her with both her swords. This time though, it seemed like the archer wasn’t as interested in concealing herself, and simply made herself be seen running from branch to branch as she endlessly sent arrows soaring at the swordswoman. It wasn’t like Honoka was going to be able to make any advances like this anyways.

Well, not until Umi ran out of arrows, at least. And when she did, she realized what a dreadful situation she was in. She didn’t have any other weapons on her, and she couldn’t just flee until she could collect the arrows she expended on Kotori either, not with her wound not closing. It would be far too risky of a gamble, especially now that Honoka had her in her sights. Instead, she decided do something even riskier -- and leap down from the tree to start collecting the arrows she fired. In a fight-or-die situation, running simply wasted too much energy, and meant too much blood lost.

Honoka quickly took advantage of the situation and broke into a charge, keeping her longer sword at the ready and her shorter sword low, cutting down any arrows she passed by. When she had closed enough distance, she swung her longer sword, and then her shorter sword, though both slashes missed, as the archer quickly ran up the tree, bow and salvaged arrows in both hands. Though she herself was not unathletic, Honoka still had to admit that she was incredibly impressed that not only did Umi manage to run up a tree like that, but was also able to push herself off of it and land behind her, evading her attacks completely.

Landing on her feet, the archer bounded backwards again, putting more distance between her and her opponent, and continued dashing away to collect the arrows she had fired, giving each and every one of them a firm grasp and a hard pull to make sure she didn’t get stuck on any one of them. By now Honoka was already charging at her again, cutting down any arrows Umi hadn’t been able to pick up in time, and Umi was quickly aware of this encroaching threat. She figured the same trick wouldn’t work twice, so rather than running up a tree again, the archer quickly ducked low and slid forward into nearby low bushes the moment the swordswoman went for another two slashes.

This arena wasn’t particularly a dense forest, but it certainly boasted quite a bit of low foliage, thick enough to practically obscure Umi from Honoka’s sight completely. That didn’t mean that she wasn’t able to strike at her anyways, although listening to the rustling of the bushes made her realize just how rapidly the archer was able to move through such small spaces. Following carefully into the foliage, she stilled her heart for a moment, just a moment long enough for her to finally pinpoint by sound where Umi was hidden. Then, with one, precise throw of her short sword, she managed to get a yelp out of the archer, like that of an injured animal, “H-hnagh-!”

Even if she was hidden underneath the bushes, there was no way Umi could hide now, not with a short sword sticking up out of her back, stuck in between her ribs, thankfully not deep enough to pierce her lungs. The foliage that had provided her cover had now became a restraint on her, preventing her from arming herself with her bow and protecting herself from the swordswoman slowly approaching in on her position. Of course, she tried to reach behind her back and dislodge the blade from her back, but there was simply no way to do so without completely cutting her hand apart, at least at this angle. The only thing she could do was panic in the face of imminent death, reduced to a helpless prey before the blade of the swordswoman.

Glaring fearlessly up into the eyes of the one who would take her life, just moments before the blade would come down on her, would end up paying off. Before Honoka could bring her blade down on her, Umi would see out of the corner of her eyes a familiar silhouette suddenly appearing behind her would-be murderer. Realizing who that was, the archer decided to make another extremely risky move and began scrambling to get back onto her feet. This obviously alarmed Honoka and prompted her to hurry with her move, not wanting to let her kill get away again, but realized it was all over when she felt the cold breath against the back of her neck and a chilling voice in her ear, saying, “Behind you.”

Umi hadn’t been able to witness the fight between Honoka and Kotori, but however the swordswoman maimed the assassin, it clearly wasn’t enough, not with Kotori suddenly back again, her clothes and underwear in complete tatters barely hanging on, her roughed up hair matted with dirt and filth, her body bloodied with multiple stab and slash wounds. The archer, who had just managed to get back on her feet, was obviously tempted to simply watch the assassin tear apart the swordswoman from behind, latching tightly onto her with all four limbs and relentlessly cutting into her chest with her knife, but Umi could not let this opportunity go to waste. Her bow and recollected arrows in her hands, she knew exactly what she had to do to remain the last one standing.

As she watched Honoka flailing about, trying to shake Kotori off and crying out in pain, Umi immediately got into position, brought two arrows to her bow, and drew the string back, bearing the piercing pain from having the short sword still lodged in her back. Keeping her eyes locked on the assassin, knowing that she would not leave until the swordswoman was dead, the archer waited and watched, letting Kotori slice Honoka apart until the latter was spewing out blood from her mouth, her chest completely torn apart, her ribs broken by the jang-mi kal blade. Only then, did Umi finally release the string and sent the two arrows flying, one into Honoka’s head for good measures, and the other right into Kotori’s.

\---

When the three idols got themselves cleaned up and showered in the locker rooms, and came out to get changed into new sets of school uniforms, the other six Muses were already there, excited about how the match had went. First came obviously the congratulations to Umi who, despite all her disadvantages in close combat, had managed to end up the only one standing, then the chitchat simply went on from there.

Just as Honoka finished putting on her underwear, and was going to put on her shirt, she would get a good scolding from Eli, and for quite good reasons too. “Honoka, the blessing is great and all, but you really got yourself messed up being dumb, you know that? Just because every hit hurts doesn’t mean you should just give up on a good stance and some defense! Besides, you know that having to use the blessing’s regenerative powers will wear it off even quicker, right? You can’t just go and let yourself get slashed because you’re the first to the beacon!”

Honoka thankfully seemed to have gotten the message, looking awfully embarrassed at her performance as she finished up the last button on her shirt and moved to get her skirt, but Rin giggled, and said, “Hey, you really can’t blame her, nya! That was the first time she has ever gotten to that rock, nya, of course she’d be eager to test it out, nya! Though, personally I wouldn’t go for it first thing in the match, nya, I’d wait for when it really counts, nya!”

It wasn’t that she didn’t understand that she messed up, but simply that she was much too flustered about the teasing, so Honoka ended up saying, as she slipped on her skirt, “I’m not super fast like you, Rin, I can’t just get the beacon whenever I want to! Besides, Kotori caught me off-guard pretty early on, so in the end, I still needed the blessing to heal, didn’t I?”

Though Honoka already had her clothes on, Kotori took a bit of her time simply brushing and taking care of her hair before starting to put her clothes on. She did enjoy quite a bit Hanayo’s praises though, even if she wasn’t expressing it in order to be modest. Instead, she simply smiled pleasantly like she always does as the first-year gushed on, “...And how you took Honoka-chan down like that! It’s honestly so cool how well you did this match! It’s a shame your fight with Umi got interrupted, or else you really could have won this!”

Of course, Nico would there to sass Kotori, just because she can. Everyone else just sees it as friendly teasing that Kotori didn’t mind very much, but both Kotori and Nico knew pretty well that it’s part of their silent rivalry. Although, this time it would not be without genuine amazement from Nico’s end, as she said, “Ehh, I dunno, she had some slip-ups here and there, coulda been better. But I’m honestly curious, how the heck did you survive that deadly strike? Your body just laid there the entire time, Honoka was chasing down Umi, but suddenly you’re up and at her at the last moment. Doesn’t your teleportation usually have a short range?”

Knowing she had somehow impressed her rival made Kotori feel even better about herself, but of course she would once again hide it underneath her usual pleasant smile and her docile tone. “A magician shouldn’t give out her tricks, Nico! ...Though, I suppose it would be good for others to know more about it if we do another team match in the future, so I’ll tell. Hehe, it’s my special move, and I call it ‘Last Act of Vengeance’! After I have been killed, I can teleport one last time to assassinate the one who murdered me, no matter how far away from me they are. It’s a last resort move, and takes quite a bit of time to charge up, and only lasts for a few minutes. So if my target manages to outlast me in those few minutes, my opportunity is over!”

Hearing about Kotori’s secret move explained did bring relief to the other Muses, knowing what they would be going up against, but at the same time it was also quite terrifying, because it meant unless they want to die, they would best kill Kotori last. Umi was quite lucky in that the one to kill her would be the third combatant, and not her, but even then, Maki would express great concerns with the limitations of using only a bow. “Umi, I’ve been telling you time and time again, you can’t always rely on nothing but a bow. That only works when you’re in a team! Facing Honoka like that when you’re already low on arrows -- that was a really bad move on your part, you know that? As cool as the acrobatic tricks were, you really need something to use in close combat!”

Umi had by now already finished getting dressed and put away her bow, and was simply waiting for the Otonokizaki volunteers to return to her with her arrows. She had to admit that her performance wasn’t the best that match, and was humbly letting Maki and Nozomi coach her. “I know, I know, I just haven’t figured out anything else I’m particularly comfortable wielding in combat yet, and I’d rather not let myself get killed trying to use some weapon I’m not proficient with.”

Placing a hand on her shoulder and getting rather close, just like she always does, Nozomi gazed into Umi’s eyes with a certain look, and spoke softly, “Don’t worry about that Umicchi, I can help you train whenever you have time alone. I may not use any weapons in the arena, but I am quite proficient with a number of arms. Especially staves and polearms, if that’s what you’re interested in…”

This kind of changing room talk was quite common after these kinds of school idol battle arena matches; there was no reason for it not to be. As recreational as it was, these kinds of battles were also quite competitive, and demanded training, if the Muses are ever to rise to the top.

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea for a while - just school idols fighting each other, each equipped with some kind of extraordinary power. I've only decided to write this today... well, I started it yesterday and finished it today, pulled an all-nighter, because I really wanted to write something but didn't really feel like working on any bigger projects I'm working on, so I just ended up writing this. 
> 
> I dunno, I just really like writing fight scenes, but don't get enough chances to write just pure action and no plot. This was a good recreational piece.


End file.
